Protective shutter for shop windows



. May 25, 1926.

BY ATTORNEY May 25 1926.

A. D. PERKINS PROTECTIVE SHUTTER FOR SHOP WINDOWS Filed Oct. 20, 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet,2

INVENTOR BY ATTDRMEY Q aw:

Patented May 25, 1926.

UNITED STATES ALONSON D. PERKINS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PROTECTIVE SHUTTER FOR SHOP WINDOWS.

Application filed October 20, 1923. Serial No. 6693M.

The object of my invention is to provide a protective shutter for shop-windows, banks, and other display places or receptacles wherein valuable articles like furs, jewelry, watches, etc. are exposed for sale or inspection,which shall automaticallyclose when the window, screen, curtain or other device interposed between the valuable articles and the persons looking at them, is disturbed or arred. My invention is particularly valuable as a protection against that class of thieves who throw a halfbrick or stone through a plate glass window behind which articles of valueare displayed.

One form of my improved protective shutter is shown in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1, is a rear View of a shop window equipped with my protective shutter, which is up out of the way ready to fall when occasion arises.

Figure 2, is a side elevation.

Figure 3, is a detail of the shutter unrolled.

Figure 4, is a detail in elevation taken on line 4-4l on Figure 1, in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 5, is a horizontal section on line 5-5 of Figure 2.

Figures 6 and 7, are enlarged details taken from Figure 2.

Figure 8, is a detail of the eccentric detent.

Figure 9, is a diagrammatic view of mechanism for giving a visible and audible alarm by the falling of the shutter.

Same letters indicate similar parts on the different figures.

A, and A are respectively the lower and upper sills of the window frame, each with,

an upright facing board, B, or B. C, represents a plate glass window, behind which, as seen from the street, is arranged my protective shutter and its operating and supporting devices. This shutter, D, is shown rolled up on its drum E, in Figure 1, and unrolled in Figure 3. This drum is mounted in a suitable fixture F, on the window frame. The shutter D, is preferably made of slats of steel, a, a, properly secured. and spaced by straps Z), Z), b,as it is sufficient, for ordinary purposes of protection, that. the shutter should be of a height great enough to prevent any attempt to reach over when down. Obviously, the longer and higher the shutter, the greater the weight which has to be supported and rolled upon the drum.

Gr, G, are guide posts, preferably iron pipes, two on each side to form a runway for the shutter as shown best in Figure 5. Behind these posts is a rod H, held by and rotatable in brackets 0, c, 0. Upon the turning of this rod H, depends the sudden, automatic, falling of the shutter and the simultaneous giving of an audible and visible alarm that the window has been tam pered with. I, I, are buffers upon which the shutter strikes at the end of its fall and upon which the shutter is held, against any attempt from .the outside to raise it again, by means of the spring-controlled clutch K.

L, is a handle equipped with suitable gear-.

ing M, and mounted in suitable bearings cl, for rolling up the shutter D 011 the drum E. J is a pawl for preventing the drum from slipping back during the rolling up of the shutter D, and L is a handle for throwing this pawl into and out of engagement.

The construction of the shutter,-its supporting devices and the means for raising the same, will, I think, be easily understood without further description. The remaining important features to be described are those which are concerned with the release of the shutter when occasion arises from attempts at burglary, or the like.

The main object of this releasing device is that it should prevent the heavy curtain or shutter D from unrolling at any time or from any other cause than the intended operation of the releasing device itself. \Vhile not in any way acting as a support of the weight of the ,shutter, the detent N, performs the same function with regard to the drum E, on which the curtain or shutter D is rolled as a. stone performs when placed under the lower edge of a wheel of a vehicle to prevent the same from rolling down hill.

This detent N, is mounted as an eccentric, by the pin 6, in block 7, on the top of the rod H, and at its forward end rests on the anti-friction roller 9, mounted on the casting 0, of the drum E. A guide It, through which the detent N passes to and fro, is fastened to the top of the post G,the play of the, detent not being sufficient to let the detent escape from said guide h. The relation of the detent N, and the rod H, by means of the eccentric form of the detent and the pin 6, is such that a movement, say

a quarter turn, of the rod H in the proper direction will withdraw the detent from contact with the casting O, and thus permit the same to revolve under the pull of the wound shutter D 011 drum E. This contact is simply a pressure contact between the forward point of the detent N, and a notch j, in the casting 0, best shown in Figure 3, where the casting is shownupside down for clearness.

To bring about this small movement of the rod H, I attach a number of screws or pins, in, is, at desired distances apart along the rod, and a similar row of pins or screws on the opposite side of the window frame as Z, Z, Z, so as to avail myself of the leverage created by the distance between the fixed points Z, Z, and the revoluble points, 70, 7;. A corresponding member oi piano wires, or other suitable connecting means, drawn taut, connect the pins is, with their corresponding fixed fulcrum points Z, and experience shows that a very slight deflection of any one of these piano wires, laterally or vertically, is suflicient to pull the rod H enough to cause it to revolve in the direction of this deflection and thus release the detent N. The waiting shutter or curtain D at once plunges downward with speed and violence, and, if of proper construction will catch and hold whatever is then in its downward path, whether a huma hand, or arm, or any implementwhieh may have been thrust through the window which is protected by said shutter or curtain. In addition to the protection aiiorded by these piano wires, m, m, m, which are subjected to the slight necessary torsion by the breaking of the window pane, (as by a stone or brick thrown therethrough) or an undue shaking of or pressure put upon said window, I further protect said window, or rather its contents of value, by what I call a counter-protection, one form of which is illustrated at the bottom of Figure 1.

This counter-device is intended to be mounted in a convenient place behind the counter of the store in which the window is located and consists primarily of a support n, alever 0, a spring 29, a connecting wire or chain 9, pulley r, and torsion rod 5. One end of this torsion rod is fixed as at 25, to the face board B, and the other end to the rod H, and its action when depressed by the lever 0, in twisting the rod H, and releasing the detent N, is similar to that of the piano wires m, m.

Experience has shown that my improved apparatus as thus described is very sensitive and responsive to any attempt to break or force open the window to which it is applied as a protective shutter, but is wholly unresponsive to the ordinary jars and impulses Which are not communicated through the agency of the piano wires m, m, or rods 8.

It will readily be understood that the release of the detent N, in the way stated will also cause an electric light P, and a call bell Q, to give the alarm that said window has been tampered with. This is effected through proper wiring from the switch 12, which, as shown best in Figure 2, consists of a stationary base-board 1, carrying stops :2, 3, between which swings the triangular piece 4., pivoted thereto at 5. These parts (except the pivot) are preferably of insulating material. The triangular piece carries two contact-arms 6, 7, and the baseboard carries two contact-points 8, 9, (latter in dotted lines). In the position shown in the drawings the circuits are open, but these circuits are closed, to give the desired alarms, by causing the triangular piece a, to swing away from the stop 3, to stop 2, by the pull on fixed arm 10, of the wire ll. This movement of the triangular piece brings the contact-arms 6, 7, into contact with their res aective contactoints 8 9 and closes the two circuits to give the alarms. The pull on the wire 11 is caused by the torsion of the rod H. This torsion is limited by the stop w, and the drum E is turned by the gear M, meshing with the gear M on the drum shaft.

It is thought that the operation and advantages of my invention will be readily understood without further explanation.

I claim l. A protective shutter for shop-windows and the like, which comprises a gravity screen rolled upon a drum and held in check by a detent,a detent mounted on a rotatable rod, and adapted to engage said drum,without in any way supporting said shutter,a rotatable rod adapted to release said detent when itself partly rotated,and means whereby a part rotation may be C0l1lmunicated to said rod to release said detent, and permit the unrolling of said screen automatically.

2. A. protective shutter for shop-windows and the like which comprises a detent adapted to retain and release the shutter, a rotatable rod adapted to move said detent when itself partly rotated, and a number of piano wires tightly strctched in close proximity to the window to be protected, between a number of fixed points and a number of points on said rotatable rod whereby the slightest deflection of any of said wires llH- parts to said rod the necessary part rota tion to cause the release of said detent.

ALONSON D. PERKINS. 

